Professor Seth Noar recognized on 2018 Highly Cited Researchers list

November 27, 2018

UNC School of Media and Journalism Professor Seth Noar has been recognized on the 2018 Highly Cited Researchers list for his work in health communication. His articles rank in in the top 1 percent of the most-cited works from 2006-16 and are topically categorized in the social sciences area.

The list, curated by Clarivate Analytics, honors leading researchers whose works are cited the most by other researchers in the Web of Science database over the past decade. Clarivate Analytics is an international organization that provides data analytics for researchers. This will be Noar's second time on the list, the first time in 2014.

"Seth's work is clearly making an impact," said Assistant Professor Allison Lazard. "Having his ideas widely cited by other scholars indicates his work is informing and contextualizing important health communication research."

Noar's research examines the types of messages that can potentially improve individuals' health behaviors. A current search of Web of Science identifies nine of his individual papers as highly cited — meaning that each paper received enough citations to place it in the top 1 percent most cited based on publication year.

"One particularly impactful piece was a study we published on graphic cigarette pack warnings in 2015 in the journal Tobacco Control," Noar said. "It was the first meta-analysis to show that graphic warnings — now used in over 100 countries around the world — are more effective than text-only cigarette pack warnings."

After it was published in 2015, the article was cited nearly 100 times in other peer-reviewed journals.

The biggest challenge Noar faced when doing his research was assembling the right interdisciplinary team for each project. Noar noted that many health problems are complex and require just the right team of researchers to come to the table and tackle the problem.

"I'm beginning my eighth year at UNC, and it’s exciting to see the work I have done here is having an impact," Noar said. "UNC has been an amazing place to work as collaborating across disciplines is one of our unique talents at Carolina."